Travelers Championship
Furyk has his own cross to bear and may be flying a little under the radar this week, as I wrote last week, referring to Jim Furyk and his bogey on 18 at Winged Foot last year that kept him out of a playoff that never happened because two other players massacred the last hole even more than he did.
I also talked about Furyk’s straight driving as a real plus going into the week. Perhaps he was a little over confident after three straight birdies and a par got him into a tie for the lead before the short par-4.. I had not seen him play the hole all week. Distraught, after the last hole, he said he used a driver all week. But when I saw him take out his driver on 17, Mickelson entered his mind as far as I was concerned. No!! Please.
I figured if Furyk parred in he would get in a playoff at least and maybe win because Angel Cabrera had a history of not finishing—he does not anymore—and Tiger was not doing much behind them with one bogey and eight pars on the back nine.
The self-described sharp-shooter let er rip and ended up in rough deep enough to cover a grapefruit. Bogey. And there it was. Cabrera held on with a birdie, two bogeys and a par on the last, smoking his tee shots after smoking butts to calm nerves that did not appear in need of calm. Last week: Scott Verplank continues to be the little engine that wins in head-to-heads. It was over by the weekend as Luke Donald missed the cut, a big surprise, and Verplank finished T7. Furyk was my best bet in the outright. The loss of half a unit there plus Verplank at 21-20, 1 unit, netted $550, or .6 units rounding up.
At this week’s Travelers Championship, Take David Toms (12-1), 1/6 unit: TPC River Highlands outside of Hartford, Connecticut, is short at 6,800 yards. There’s a big pond that’s in play on three finishing holes. I like the steady Toms to steer clear of trouble, which is my concern with picking Vijay. Both played well last week at Oakmont. Toms was steady as she goes with rounds of 72, 72, 72, 73 to finish T5 in the rough conditions. He’s got six top-10s this year in total and nine top-25s (he has not missed a cut in the 15 tourneys.)
Take Anthony Kim (25-1), 1/6 unit: The Q-School graduate and Tour rookie leads in final round scoring average (68.5)—you have to like that. The best example happened last week when he followed an 80 on Saturday with a 67 on Sunday to finish T20. It goes some way in explaining his consistent year of missing only four cuts out of 17 tournaments and four top-10s.
Take Will MacKenzie (50-1), 1/6 unit: I was thinking we would not hear much from the dude after his splash out West to start the year. It has been true and not true: he has been streaky, playing well, top-20s one week, missing a cut or two, playing OK for stretches. For example, he missed three cuts in a row to start May, and since has gone T52, T11 and T8. He does not do anything particularly well or badly out there, but tends to let aggressive play get the better of him. A question is how much he wants to win because you can make a damn good living on the PGA Tour, which allows for plenty of surf trips. There is another young surfer who has won some on Tour, though: Adam Scott.
by: Staci Richards – theSpread.com – Email Us
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